How to form any Major Scale

Happy New Year Friends! When we last left off we were going to learn how to form any Major Scale and your assignment left us with this: D E F G A B C D1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 If you have no idea what we are doing in this post and this is your first time, no worries, read the other posts in this blog, and it will bring you up to speed. A warning now for those of you who missed it, in earlier posts: You MUST have a handle on the Musical Alphabet, or you're done here. If you're staggering during this lesson, and don't know an F is a whole step away from Eb, or C# is a whole step away from B, you don't have a handle on the Musical Alphabet, to fully make use of this lesson. If you need help with this, PM me here, because you have to know that to have any hope of understanding even the most easiest theory concepts. OK moving on, for those of you that have that and are ready to proceed. Note, this explanation will read long, because it is step by step. If you know your musical alphabet perfectly, you'll follow right along. If not, it's going to soar over your head rather quickly. D E F G A B C D1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Take this and insert a dash "-" between 3 and 4 and do the same between the 7 and 8. D E F G A B C D1 2 3-4 5 6 7-8 That's it! You're ready to work out your D Major scale. The secret is this: The letters between the dashes are a half step apart. Everything else is a whole step. Solve left to right. D E F G A B C D1 2 3-4 5 6 7-8 D to E - half step or whole? Whole. It's fine as it is, move to the next. D E E to F - half step or whole? Half. It's supposed to be a whole (there's no dash between them). What KIND of F is a whole step from E? F#, that's right, so, we have to make that F into an F#. D E F# F# to G - Half step or whole? It's a Half Step. And, in this instance there IS a dash between them! So, it's now good as written. Move forward. D E F# G G to A - Half step or whole? Its a whole, and it should be, as there's no dash in between them. Lets leave it as solved and move to the next. D E F# G A A to B - Half step or whole? Its also a whole, and should be. Done. Move to the next! D E F# G A B B to C - Half step of whole? Its a Half, and it should be Whole! What kind of C is a whole step from B? That's right, C#! D E F# G A B C# Finally C# to D - Half step or whole? It's a half, and it SHOULD be, because there's a dash between these! We have our D Major scale! D E F# G A B C# D1 2 3 - 4 5 6 7-8 By taking this exact approach of our get ready and "solving" the question of half steps or whole steps left to right (and remember, our dashes make it easy to tell which should be which), we can correctly identify the notes in all major scales! Let's take E E F G A B C D E1 2 3-4 5 6 7-8 Solved becomes: E F# G# A B C# D# E1 2 3 - 4 5 6 7-8 Remember, letters never change, but by adjusting the accidentals (sharps or flats), we can move the distance between two notes, this B-C as a half step, becomes B-C# at a whole step. Try writing out any major scale you want by following this pattern, and as long as you don't change the letters and know your musical alphabet, you'll get it right every time. Finally, once you have the Major scale, draw a circle around the letters at number 1, 4 and 5, and we will pick up Major Scales and Diatonic Harmony next time. (E) F# G# (A) (B) C# D# E1 2 3 - 4 5 6 7 - 8 Till next time...play well my friends! rnbacademy.com